Bear Brooke Parking/Recommended Trails

I'm looking to hit up Bear Brooke in the next week or so assuming the weather holds up. I've only been once and don't remember much about were I went trail wise. That being said where do you guys park and what trails do you recommend? I'd say I tend to ride more intermediate trails so nothing too technical.

Whatever you decide on, I highly recommend the new trails that are near the Hiker/Biker lot off of Podunk Road. They are called Little Bear (old name, new trail) and Big Bear (new trail, one way downhill).

I typically park near the toll booth and ride up into the park and then I descend the Big Bear trail and the Bear Brook Trail back to area of the toll booth to finish off my day.

I'd recommend just going out and exploring. There are so many options that trying to do it in an online forum just won't do it justice.

http://www.northeastcycling.com/Bear_Brook_Map.pdf
That map is good, this one has more of the singletrack. If you want smoother faster trails that I would park at hiker biker ride up campground rd to the sandpit. Directly to the left of the sandpit is the entrance is Hemlock. Follow hemlock and keep making lefts at the first three intersections you come two this will eventually put you at campground rd. Go left up campground rd till you see pitch pine on the left take that. It will intersect with broken boulder bear left and then take a right onto bobcat. ride that all the way to hayes field. At this point I will give you to options 1 take little bear back to the car. 2 at the far end take carr ridge trail to bear brook. option 2 is longer and carr ridge is a little technical but really fun! at the end of bear brook you can take a left to go ride the new little bear climb and big bear descent.

http://www.northeastcycling.com/Bear_Brook_Map.pdf
That map is good, this one has more of the singletrack. If you want smoother faster trails that I would park at hiker biker ride up campground rd to the sandpit. Directly to the left of the sandpit is the entrance is Hemlock. Follow hemlock and keep making lefts at the first three intersections you come two this will eventually put you at campground rd. Go left up campground rd till you see pitch pine on the left take that. It will intersect with broken boulder bear left and then take a right onto bobcat. ride that all the way to hayes field. At this point I will give you to options 1 take little bear back to the car. 2 at the far end take carr ridge trail to bear brook. option 2 is longer and carr ridge is a little technical but really fun! at the end of bear brook you can take a left to go ride the new little bear climb and big bear descent.

This sounds like a great route, I might have to try it out. My only questions would be, do I ride campground road all the way to the bottom (map wise) and then get on Hemlock and ride it back?

http://www.northeastcycling.com/Bear_Brook_Map.pdf
That map is good, this one has more of the singletrack. If you want smoother faster trails that I would park at hiker biker ride up campground rd to the sandpit. Directly to the left of the sandpit is the entrance is Hemlock. Follow hemlock and keep making lefts at the first three intersections you come two this will eventually put you at campground rd. Go left up campground rd till you see pitch pine on the left take that. It will intersect with broken boulder bear left and then take a right onto bobcat. ride that all the way to hayes field. At this point I will give you to options 1 take little bear back to the car. 2 at the far end take carr ridge trail to bear brook. option 2 is longer and carr ridge is a little technical but really fun! at the end of bear brook you can take a left to go ride the new little bear climb and big bear descent.

our average ride starts the same way, out hemlock to campground, pitch pine, but we go all the way up broken boulder to chipmunk? part of the way down chipmunk there is a bail point to the left that goes up to podunk, follow podunk to gate that goes up to bearhill, climb bear hill, descend bearhill back to podunk, ride down to field, cross field to carr ridge, ride all the way up carr ridge and descend to cascade, right onto cascade, new reroute brings you out to doubletrack, directly accross is start of bear brook, follow bear brook back to hiker biker lot, or you can keep going climb up little bear and then descend back to car on the new big bear. The ride can also be extended when you come out to the bottom of cascade, back track and do catamount. option 1 is about 11 miles, with little bear and big bear at the end is prolly 13, and adding catamount will make it about a 15 mile death march... hehe
that will give you some extended climbs, but reward with extended fun descents as well. riding all that is prolly the best bear book has to offer all at once....

http://www.northeastcycling.com/Bear_Brook_Map.pdf
That map is good, this one has more of the singletrack. If you want smoother faster trails that I would park at hiker biker ride up campground rd to the sandpit. Directly to the left of the sandpit is the entrance is Hemlock. Follow hemlock and keep making lefts at the first three intersections you come two this will eventually put you at campground rd. Go left up campground rd till you see pitch pine on the left take that. It will intersect with broken boulder bear left and then take a right onto bobcat. ride that all the way to hayes field. At this point I will give you to options 1 take little bear back to the car. 2 at the far end take carr ridge trail to bear brook. option 2 is longer and carr ridge is a little technical but really fun! at the end of bear brook you can take a left to go ride the new little bear climb and big bear descent.

That is a great map. Using that map, I can explain my route a lot better. I still prefer to park at the toll booth rather than hiker/biker, because I like to get in my climbing early and end with a great descent. Here are three options (short, medium, long) Here's my route:

Short
1. One Mile Road to Catamount (right) to Bear Brook extension (left).
2. Bear Brook extension to Alpe d'Huez (right).
3. Alpe d'Huez to Sentinel Pine (right).
4. Sentinel Pine to Carr Ridge. When I get to Carr Ridge, I take a right and ride the top of that trail to get over to Hayes Field.
5. From there, I ride the top of Little Bear (left) to the top of Big Bear (right).
***6. I'll ride Big Bear to the top of Bear Brook.
7. From there I ride Bear Brook out to the fire road (right) and then Bear Brook Lower back to the toll booth area.

Medium
From the bottom of Big Bear (#6), I take a right and head through the Hiker/Biker lot to Pitch Pine.
1. Pitch Pine to the sand pit
2. On the far left of the sand pit, I enter Hemlock
***3. I keep making lefts until I hit the double track near the road (Campground Road?)
4. Right on Campground Road and ride it to Pitch Pine (left)
5. Pitch Pine to Broken Boulder (veer left)
6. Broken Boulder to Bobcat (right)
7. Bobcat to Hayes Field
8. I finish up the same as the short loop (Little Bear to Big Bear to Bear Brook and out to the toll booth)

Long
I take a left instead of a right at the Campground road (#3) and reconnect with Hemlock
1. Hemlock to Campground where Lynx trail begins
2. Lynx to Hall Mt. Trail (cross road)
3. Hall Mt. Trail to Podunk (left)
4. Podunk to Ferret (left)
5. Ferret to Hedgehog Ledge (right)
6. Hedgehog Ledge (most technical stuff here IMO) to Bear Hill (left)
7. Bear Hill to Podunk (left)
8. Podunk to Hayes field and finish the same as the short loop

These are my typical loops for Bear Brook and they are adjusted and tweaked for how much time I have and what I'm in the mood for. I almost always ride Little (and Big) Bear and I almost always ride Bear Brook from the Hiker/Biker towards the Toll Booth. I find Bear Brook to be a great descent, but a very lame climb. Hemlock and Alpe d'Huez are also usually in the mix too.

This sounds like a great route, I might have to try it out. My only questions would be, do I ride campground road all the way to the bottom (map wise) and then get on Hemlock and ride it back?

You want to ride Hemlock from the sand pit side which is about a 1/4 mile up campground rd from were it branches of podunk. you could also take the begining of pitch pine ( double track snowmobile trail. I preffer to ride up campground rd its a nice little hill to get the blood flowing. when you get to the top of the first hill on campground rd you will see the entrance to the sandpit. The entrance to hemlock is directly to the left of the pit if you are staring at it. Like other said keep left at the first 3 intersections that will put you on a double track. You know you are close to campground rd when you see a huge downed tree that has been made into a roller with dirt and logs. after that 1/4 mile take a right on campground to go to pitch pine to continue the loop.

Originally Posted by bcon

Oh mannn, so many options. I'm definitely going to keep all these in mind. I guess now I'll just have to figure out how long of a ride I want and go from there.

ecwashere7's loops are great. and I have done most of them. do note the Hall mtn trail he speaks of is actually the hall marsh trail aka the I trail. Also the long loop he wrote has the more technical trails i.e Hedgehog ledge, Hall Marsh, Lynx and campground trail/ aka beaver pond trail. Are they super technical, no not really like someone already said Bear Brook is not very technical. It really depends on what type of terrain you like cause BB has trails for just about every style of new england XC